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Nonvisual color perception: A critical review
Author(s) -
Kaiser Peter K.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
color research and application
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.393
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1520-6378
pISSN - 0361-2317
DOI - 10.1002/col.5080080303
Subject(s) - phenomenon , perception , cognitive psychology , psychology , texture (cosmology) , energy (signal processing) , color vision , computer science , artificial intelligence , epistemology , neuroscience , mathematics , philosophy , statistics , image (mathematics)
Since the last century, there have been a number of claims that people can identify and discriminate color with their fingers. The most completely documented evidence for these claims, begining in 1963, is critically reviewed. It was the hope of the early investigators of this phenomenon that this ability would some day be useful for the blind. The best evidence suggests that people are capable of making certain temperature discriminations and that objects of different reflectances can be discriminated on this basis. The temperature exchange stems from the infrared energy emitted by the skin. Research that has presented evidence for finger color perception was often shown to have methodological problems, including learning to discriminate stimuli by texture cues and failure to adequately blindfold observers and prevent use of visual information. The present review concludes that the phenomenon of using the fingers to “see” color does not and will not, in the forseeable future, provide any additional hope for the blind.